I agree, I know many people feel all classes should be available for all races and I get that sentiment. But I really like seeing things tailored to certain races , I like the story and reasonings things can happen. I like the fact that mag’har cant be warlocks, or that shal’dorei can due to the difference in history. I like how there is one special Nelf Paladin due to that being a special situation or that goblin monks are a rarity.
I feel like indiviuals as certain classes make sense, but certain callings dont make sense across all orcs. I can’t really see green orcs/MU being followers of the Light, but on a small scale? I’m sure there are some.
Restrictions creates creativity, and because of the restrictions ive seen some amazing characters! And its made THEIR stories so much more special because there isnt a million orc paladins or goblin monks everywhere.
But!!! I’m sure some things will eventually happen if gradually. Some people dont care about the story, and im sure some will just say ‘Lol thinking blizz thinks that hard’. I dont wanna have to do that for all my posts because I have fun thinking about this stuff!!
I’m sure no one needs to be told but I feel like the for and against are not mutually exclusive. Most of the issue is specifically in Blizzard’s complete lack of support and nuance for their setting. Restrictions should matter. Fifteen years later with no significant explanation, they do not.
But I’m mostly just speaking to the audience, I feel like most people “get” both sides already.
I submit: give every race every class, but bring back racial class abilities (similar to how priests in Vanilla got different spells depending on what race they were) to make them distinct.
It would become a nightmare to balance and people would accuse them of trying to sell race change microtransactions, but they already don’t think you should care about class balance outside of the world first race anyway, so who cares?
I don’t even think they need to be mechanically different abilities, the easier to balance option would be to just actually make different races’ abilities have racially unique flair or animations.
I mean I think unique abilities would be better but I’m just working within the range of “which team of Blizzard’s is less likely to get slack” and, well, we know which one gets less business management meddling (in theory).
In following on my previous post, the restrictions don’t exist for a bunch of classes. Mages, simply put, are not somehow antithetical to Tauren. A cow does not simply vaporize if they put on a pointy hat. Now, we have a bunch of loose allusions to how their culture doesn’t really fit into the niche of what Blizzard’s mage trope is, but that didn’t stop Goblin and Shaman (even if, again, we have loose references to how their atypical methods are).
Blizzard has every opportunity to add flavour text, and dialogue, and spell effects, or whatever. They choose not to, it’s a conscious decision, the game is marketed to a specific sort of mass appeal that is antithetical to restriction. It sucks, but it is.
Now, in the same way that I think Order Halls were a dry run for Covenants, it’s possible that in the coming years Blizzard is making a move toward that kind of cosmetic appreciation based on what we know of Shadowlands.
So anyways. It was a fun thing I did momentarily forget when I kicked into Classic. I’d also be down for racial visuals even if the easiest example is for Lightwielders. Give night elf priets/paladins silver instead of gold. Tauren get orange instead of gold. Etcetera.
Several race/class combinations for Paladin never sit well with me for long due to the fact that no matter if you’re a Rezan worshipping druid-in-plate, powered by the immortal sun, or something in between you’re going to take these mother loving angel wings and holy books and you’re going to damn well like them.
Again, as long as the animations are very 1:1 or even just colour changes I don’t think there’d be too much harm in changing stuff with the example of paladins specifically.
Worst case scenario is that some of those healing spells get the libram in the paladin’s hand adjusted to a scroll or a token of their patron or something. We already kind of have it with the Divine Steed skill.
I really don’t see an issue with opening up classes to all races mainly because, all combos outside of being a Blood Elf/Void Elf are going to pale in comparison so them being rare will actually reflect well with the player population.
Open Orcs up for Paladin sure, the player population would also reflect how rare the combo it is in general. Nothing is going to pass up Blood Elves being the top choice for Paladin…or any class for that matter. Same goes for Alliance and Void Elves/Humans. Draenei warlock would be rare, and it would still be a rare combo among the players. Same with rogue Tauren/Draenei…still rare.
Tauren rogues have had an appeal to those looking to play a lore class, the holy strider. Most people I know who actually have played one have opted to go with hunter… but I digress.
Personally, I am one that does like some of the class/race restrictions. I still cringe at the idea of a Tauren warlock. But, even with that said, I can make a case for them. Not everyone wants an Earthmother approved Tauren. We can’t all be goodie two shoes.
Agreed. Draenei warlocks wouldn’t be common, but they could still exist as well. Power is power and an individual is an individual.
Uncommon/controversial combinations are going to be still uncommon if you’re not an elf. So I don’t see a problem. All it does is give the player the challenge to put more thought behind their character imo.
Shoo, Gnomes are probably the more versatile race of Azeroth because they don’t really have a deity/belief path. These guys are curious to the core so in reality, they should be almost every combination of class.
Bloodtotem that might’ve gone “haha a’ight this is a bit much” during Legion is an idea. Or just shadier types that might have hung out with the wrong Undercity of Cleft of Shadow crowds.
Absolutely fascinated that Kul Tirans didn’t get them, myself.
Yeah! Like, in an ideal world, we’d get Mag’har and Kul’Tiran paladins. I’m actually baffled why Kul Tirans aren’t paladins, like… Sure they don’t have a church of the holy light but neither do Tauren or Trolls! You could handwave it and say they’re just Tideguard that manifest the Light through faith in the Tidemother.
That is, if you’re gonna go holy orc, at least tailor it so it fits their culture.
The word paladin brings to mind: Human Military Religion. Alliance have plenty of them across 3 races and kinda is why the faction comes off as sorta bland (to me at least)
I think people are overlooking that we don’t actually see Light wielding AU orcs.
Goofy as they are, they’re pretty consistently Shadow Priests in reference to the Shadowmoon Clan.
Anyway. I find it kind of a moot point to ask for fewer class restrictions on Paladins, Shaman, Druids, etc. while Demon Hunters continue to exist.
